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tropical wedding

One of the things that attracted me to my boyfriend at the time was the sense of adventure we both had. It was certainly something that brought us together and made for exciting times. When we decided to get married, we wanted our wedding to be an adventure as well. We were looking at all sorts of crazy ideas, but we both realized we were feeling the same thing: it wouldn’t be the same without our friends and family. We needed something that was bit of a compromise, and that was when we discovered Key West.

So much about it appeals to so many different people that we knew it would be the perfect choice. People who loved to spend time on the water would have plenty to do, as would those who enjoy history. There were coffee shops for early birds, bars and night clubs for night owls, and an amazing number of Key West restaurants for everyone to choose from.

Of course, we weren’t just concerned about our guests. We wanted to make sure our wedding was meaningful and special for us. We found a wedding planner who understood what we wanted and she helped us find the right location for the ceremony and a great restaurant that had an amazing reception menu of fresh seafood and crab cakes, not to mention a killer view. She even helped us violate one of the pre-wedding traditions that says a bride and groom aren’t supposed to see each other on their wedding day until the ceremony.

When my wife and I got married, we were both fresh out of college and just starting our careers, so money and time was tight. We had a simple ceremony followed by a reception in her parent’s back yard, and our honeymoon was a weekend getaway. Although we never regretted having something so small, we talked from time to time about what we would have done differently if we could have.

Flash forward about twenty years and our upcoming anniversary. We wanted to do something special so we decided to renew our vows. This time, we were going to do it the way we wanted, and that meant by making it happen in Key West. That had been our dream honeymoon destination back then, and we had been fortunate enough to vacation there a few times over the years.

Even though we were already married (obviously), we still hired a wedding planner to take care of the logistics. Then we went through our old guest list and re-invited everyone who had been there the first time, plus some new friends we had made over the years. I’m not sure if it was because they wanted to support us or just wanted a tropical island vacation, but most of them said yes.

We had a blast. We got to say “I do” on the beach as the sun set, we took our friends to several of our favorite Key West restaurants, and we even got to spend the night in a honeymoon suite. We may have been one of the older couples having a tropical island wedding that weekend, but we felt like newlyweds all over again.